Sahara can’t accept new deposits maturing beyond 2011: RBI

Mumbai, June 17 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Tuesday barred Sahara India Financial Corp. Ltd. (SIFCL), the Sahara group’s parabanking company, from accepting fresh deposits maturing beyond June 2011. In statement issued late Tuesday evening, the central bank said: “SIFCL is hereby directed not to accept any new deposit which matures beyond June 30, 2011, and to stop accepting installments of existing deposit accounts also with effect from that date.”

In the same breadth, RBI said that Aggregate Liability to Depositors (ALD) will not exceed Rs.150 billion as of June 30, 2009, Rs.126 billion as of June 30, 2010, and Rs.90 billion as of June 30, 2011.

“SIFCL shall repay the deposits as and when they mature and bring the ALD to zero on or before June 30, 2015,” RBI said, taking into consideration the oral and written submissions made by SIFCL.

Earlier, RBI had barred the Sahara group’s para-banking company from accepting fresh deposits from the public and had directed the company to repay the depositors on maturity with immediate effect.

SIFCL, based at Lucknow, is one of India’s biggest non-banking finance companies and has 42.5 million customers and 1,508 service centres. The Sahara group has interests in financial services, entertainment, real estate and sports.